HC starts hearing four petitions

Rejecting an adjournment prayer, the High Court yesterday started hearing four separate seven-year-old petitions of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the legality of three corruption cases against her.

Khaleda filed the petitions on different dates in 2008 challenging the legality of the proceedings of Barapukuria coalmine, Gatco and Niko corruption cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Yesterday, the HC bench of Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Zafar Ahmed adjourned the hearing of the petitions till 2:00pm on Wednesday, ACC's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

Earlier in the day, the bench rejected a prayer moved by Nazmul Huda, a lawyer for Khaleda, for adjourning the hearing of the petitions till May 20.

But, the bench rejected the adjournment prayer and asked the petitioner's counsels to place arguments on the petitions.

On April 7, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha assigned the bench led by Justice Nuruzzaman to deal with the petitions.

Earlier on April 5, another bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan sent all her four petitions to the CJ due to "unprofessional and unethical conduct of the lawyers for the petitioner (Khaleda)".